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Dowth Passage Tomb is in Boyne Valley, Prehistoric Ireland.
Llewellynn Jewitt 1870. At Dowth [Map] and Nowth [Map] (Dubhath and Cnobh), very similar chambered tumuli exist, the former of which is also remarkable for its sculptural stones, which bear a strong resemblance to those at New Grange. The Cairn of Dowth here engraved (fig. 45), is of immense size, and contains a cruciform chamber similar to that at New Grange, with a passage twenty-seven feet in length, composed as was the chamber of enormous stones. On some of the stones were carvings and Oghams. The mouth of the passage leading to the cruciform chamber is shown on fig. 46.
Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries Chapter V. The third of these great tumuli on the Boyne is known as that of Dowth [Map]. Dubhad if Petrie is right in identifying it with the third sepulchre plundered by the Danes in 862. It was dug into by a Committee of the Royal Irish Academy in 1847, but without any satisfcictory results, A great gash was made in its side to its centre, which has fearfully disfigured its form,1 but without any central chamber being reached; but on the western side a small entrance was discovered leading to a passage which extended 40 feet 6 inches (from A to D) towards the interior. At the distance of 28 feet from the entrance it formed a small domical chamber, with three branches, very like that at New Grange, but on a smaller scale. In the centre of this apartment was one large flat basin (L), similar in form, and, no doubt, in purpose, to the three at New Grange, but far larger, being 5 feet by 3 feet. The southern branch of the chamber extends to K in a curvilinear form for about 28 feet, where it is stopped for the present by a large stone, and another partially obstructs the passage at 8 feet in front of the terminal stone.
Note 1. In extenuation of this disfigurement, it must be explained that those Irish cairns are extremely difficult to explore without destroying them. Being wholly composed of loose stoms. it is almost impossible to tunnel into them, and almost as difficult to sink shafts through them. The only plan seems to be to cut into them, and, when this is done, disfigurement is inevitable.